I quite liked the concept of this book, and it started well with a fractured, dysfunctional family after the death of the matriarch. However, as the book progressed, I found it difficult to follow the story, as it kept flitting around the characters. The concept is really good, but I don't feel the author has given it full justice this time.

The title of this book could best be called "who is my mother?". While the story line is definitely unique, it was often confusing. In the end, the good guys won but the story took a lot of twists and turns to have a satisfactory ending. I'm still not sure how the dolls fit in but everything worked out in the end.

I wished I could’ve gotten into this book but sadly I didn’t. The plot was shaky and it was so hard to stay focused. The writing was subpar. I seen a lot of promise but unfortunately Ann Troup lacked in what could’ve been a great book.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher an the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

I enjoyed this book, it was a pretty decent read but I did not find the story all that suspenseful. Even though there were lots of plot twists, I found them kind of predictable, maybe I have read too many really good thrillers lately and my expectations were higher for suspense. That being said, it was a good book to read, I read it while on vacation.

This is an absolutely brilliant thriller. I love this author, she really knows how to write an action packed story. Rachel gets a letter from her sister, Francis, telling her to come back home. Their mother has died and the large family home has to be cleared out and sold. As soon a Rachel arrives, bodies are found, murders are committed and old family secrets are revealed. Read this book carefully as there is an awful lot going on!

This is the story of a family who put the capital "D" into dysfunctional! Rachel Porter returns to her home town following the death of her mother. She isn't there for the funeral, that was days ago, but rather because she is needed for paperwork around probate. She finds her sister Frances burning everything in sight as she empties the moulding wreck of the family home, The Limes. The other sister Stella has disappeared. Then two bodies are found - an adult in the woodshed by Frances and a baby in a cupboard by Rachel. So what exactly happened in The Limes?

I really enjoyed this book. There are one or two small things which didn't quite work for me but they were small & didn't stop me moving on with the story. I did work out some of the plot before it happened but not all of it - to be fair there are a lot of twists!

I enjoyed the characters in this book. The police are about the only really likeable characters as the rest are very damaged people. However, they were interesting people. I can't say too much as I really don't want to give out any spoilers!

On the whole this was a well constructed book with interesting characters. I shall read another book by this author and intend to purchase "The Forgotten Room".

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

Take a moment to think of the most screwed up family you can imagine - real or fictional. Now multiply that times 10. That is who the Porters - the stars of this novel - are.

And it was deliciously entertaining.

As I said, the novel revolves around a screwed-up family, the latest generation of which is made up of three sisters, Frances, Stella and Rachel. Rachel hasn't seen her family for nearly 20 years, but is summoned to return to the family home when her mother dies. But once there, bodies begin to appear, and they raise more questions than answers. And when those answers emerge, Rachel may wish she never asked those questions.

This novel reads like a soap opera, told from the points of view of the sisters and the various people surrounding them. It had all the elements that make a great family saga come together: murder, sex, lies and betrayals. I really enjoyed all the chaos; it was a good guilty pleasure.

But when I say this family is screwed up - I mean they are SCREWED UP. Some of it was not easy to imagine as it showed the worst of humanity. But I could not look away.

I gave it four stars,however, because even though I really enjoyed the melodramatic plot, those looking for more of a thriller or a mystery may find themselves disappointed. There is some mystery and thriller elements - but I wouldn't classify it as that.

When Valerie dies two of her three daughters Rachel and Frances come to clear out her house and they are certainly going to find more than they bargained for! With bodies galore and secrets and lies coming out of the woodwork there was certainly some action but I found it a bit difficult to follow with too many people telling the story and this made it confusing hence only 3 stars

This is hard for me to review. I wanted to get to the end to see how all the mysteries were tied together. I mostly ended up confused. There were so many suggestions on what had happened and who did it that I am still unsure of the answers to some of my questions. The ending was rushed and I felt like too many oddball things were added to tie things up. I have no problem with a dysfunctional family, but this was over the top. I felt the story would have benefited from a few less characters and a few less plot lines.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. I started to read this several times and I am afraid that in the end I gave up as I did not like the characters or the style of writing

Definitely an author to watch I could not put this book down. When Rachel’s mother dies all the family lies and secrets begin to unravel. Who can tell the truth from the lies. This family has not just one skeleton in the cupboard but a whole roomful.

my mother, the Liar by Ann Troup.
Rachel Porter has returned to her family home. She doesn't want to be there. but her sister Frances says she needs her help. while they are Clearing it out they find two bodies. who are they and who did it?
Omg a fantastic read. It really had me thinking. I really didn't see that coming. Very cleverly written. 5*.

Rachel Porter returns home when her mother dies, and then we start finding out a lot of family secrets that have long been buried, literally. There were so many twists in this family drama that it was very difficult to keep up with them. There were bodies buried on the old homestead, there is incest and every member of the family has their own secrets. The point of view made the book diffficult to follow since the current character was the one telling the story and at times I found myself flipping back a few pages to remind myself who was telling the story now. There were too many characters to keep up with and too many secrets to be believable or relatable. The author seemed to throw in the deaths as a way to keep the reader interested, but instead they were off-putting to me since there was so much confusion built around them. This was really not a very enjoyable book, but I continued to read it to find out what was going on, so I suppose that is a positive.

I loved this book. There were so many twists and turns and after awhile I didn't know who to believe. I definitely would not have wanted to grow up in The Limes, which was like a house of horrors. I would say the Porter family wins the award for most dysfunctional family. Valerie had to be one of the worst mothers, although Delia was right next to her.

Frances was the clever one, Stella was useless and Rachel was downright difficult. That was how Valerie labeled her three daughters. With the death of Valerie, Rachel reluctantly returns home to help Frances clean out the house. With the purging of the house, many secrets start to be revealed. Rachel didn't expect to find two dead bodies while cleaning out the house.

I loved the story, writing style and characters. I wasn't expecting the ending. I was glad when the reader finally learned the truth and who was involved in the many murders. The house seen its share of dead people. I definitely recommend the book and look forward to reading more books by the author.

Thanks to NetGalley, HQ Digital and the author, Ann Troup, for a free electronic ARC of this novel.

This was my first book that I have read Biane and I was completely unimpressed I wasn’t a big fan of the authors writing style and honestly I didn’t feel that the story really went anywhere so very disappointed in the story of Rachel and her mother and would not recommend this to a friend

I found this book difficult read and to understand any of the characters. I did try to continue with it but gave up. Not my kind of book, but that's just my opinion

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This has to be the most dysfunctional family ever. When the matriarch, Valerie, dies, two of her three daughters gather to clean up the family home. A home full of secrets. And two dead bodies. From there, the craziness just unfolds, page after page. I was astounded at how much the plot twists and turns, and how totally crazy this family was.

That being said, the book just didn’t work for me. First, for some reason, I had a very hard time keeping the characters straight. The narrative jumps from one character to another, and it just wasn’t cohesive. Second, there is so much plot twisting (read that as craziness), that there is no suspense. It was just a barrage of one more piece of crazy after another (abuse, abortion, infanticide, incest, prostitution, murder, just to name a few) that it was tiring to keep up with who did what to whom. I felt like I was on overload while reading instead of sinking into the story.

This book just wasn’t for me. If you happen to like this genre, you might enjoy it. I’d liken it to Flowers in the Attic, which was such a popular book that it became a series. That one just didn’t work for me either, but might work for you.

I had a really really hard time following this one. There were a lot of characters with too many issues and it was super hard for me to keep track of everyone. I felt like I was getting whiplash trying to keep up!

Unfortunately, it didn't feel like a story unfolding naturally and it just felt so rushed to me. There was way too much going on and not in a good way at ALL. And honestly, I'm tired of the same story about lies and who trusts whom etc etc. I've heard some great things about this author but unfortunately this wasn't a great thriller in my opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Digitial for an arc in exchange for my honest review.
Published to GR: 3/4/18
Publication date: 2/12/18

This is a mystery that will leave you scratching your head throughout. With so many family secrets everyone is confused as to what the truth really is. There are so many unreliable narrators in this book because they truly think that they know they truth when they really only know the family secret. Every few pages more secrets are uncovered that lead you down a different train of thought only to be derailed by the next uncovered secret.

This book is full the family drama of a highly dysfunctional family in every way possible. It left my head spinning as to what was really going on. This is sometimes the making of a great book but if it is over done, as it was with this book, it can leave the reader frustrated because the story keeps starting over with the new truth only to start over with a newer truth on the next page. However, even with the many twists in this book I did not see a lot of them coming which made for a shocking read.

Overall I would recommend this book if you like physiological thrillers and mysteries.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37766016-my-mother-the-liar" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="My Mother the Liar" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1514551911m/37766016.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37766016-my-mother-the-liar">My Mother the Liar</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5250553.Ann_Troup">Ann Troup</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2280374317">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Netgalley #17<br /><br />Many thanks go to Ann Troup, HQ Digital, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. <br /><br /> this book turned me inside out! <br />I’m still processing all of the twists and turns. Troup did a superp job of connecting the dots while constantly thrown repeated spanners in the works.i have no idea how she kept it all straight in her head. <br />The story introduces us to three sisters: Frances, Stella, and Rachel. Valerie, their mother, has died, and they have to gut the house to put it on the market. But they don't get along at all. Oh, and there's a dead body on the property. That's just the beginning. Oh is that just the beginning. Rachel we learn has epilepsy and left her husband many years ago. So there's that. I honestly cannot tell you Reading this right now anything else because the plot is that convoluted. I don't want to give anything away. <br />I couldn't put this book down. Just when I thought Troup had resolved a plot twist, I was gobsmacked. It was like that until the very last page. In fact, I had to stop reading and text a friend I became so frustrated at one point only to find I was being ridiculous a few pages later. <br />I was really impressed with the writing style. It must have taken a lot of story mapping to have this turn out so smoothly complete. I'm very interested in Troup's other writings.
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